A gruesome shark attack off the Muriwai Beach in New Zealand claimed the life of filmmaker Adam Strange.

The 46-year-old director was attacked on Wednesday while swimming close to the shore of the popular beach located on Auckland's west coast.

The large shark responsible for the attack was reported as a 14-foot long Great White, according to Fox News.

Television commercial director Adam Strange, 46, was swimming 200m offshore north from Maori Bay to Muriwai at about 1.30pm when he was attacked by a large shark.

Fisherman Pio Mose saw the deadly shark attack and the carnage as Strange was eaten alive.

"I yelled at him to swim to the rocks," Mose said to The New Zealand Herald. "There was blood everywhere. The water was red. It's awful - it's scary like a nightmare to me. I was shaking, scared, panicked."

Police and lifeguards quickly took to the water in inflatable rescue boats, and officers opened fire at the shark before it disappeared.

The one reported Great White may have not been the only shark involved in the attack as three others were allegedly spotted, according to New Zealand's 3News.

While the New Zealand beach is a popular area for both swimmers and sharks, Strange's death is the first confirmed shark attack fatality since 1976.

Strange was an award-winning filmmaker who worked on television commercials and short films.

He won the "Best Short Film, 14+" award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009 for the movie Aphrodite's Farm, according to The Hollywood Gossip.

Strange described his life and his love of the outdoors on his website, "When I get a spare 5 minutes, I like to make a fruit smoothy, surf some big waves out on the West Coast."